The Storms of Life
by ejb
Summary: Unable to sleep. Jeff Tracy relives some of his memories


Thunderbirds and the Tracy family are the creation of Gerry Anderson. I don't own the rights, somebody else does.

Once again I am grateful to Quiller and Lynn for beta reading and helpful advice.

THE STORMS OF LIFE

Jeff Tracy looked out of the patio door before locking it and closing the blinds for the night. It was dark now so he could no longer see the storm clouds forming above. He could hear the wind, though, as it started to pick up speed and rustled the trees and bushes on his island home.

He pulled the door shut and locked it. Then closed the blinds. 'Strange ritual,' he thought to himself. Locking up the house before going to bed had been something he had done when he lived on the mainland and it was a habit he could not shake off even though he was living on an island with only his family and three close friends. Not to mention a mega dollar security alarm system that would be triggered if anybody set foot on the island, or came within a certain range with an aircraft.

Everyone else in the villa was in bed now and he intended to do the same. Before he did that, however, he wanted to make one last check with John up in the space station to be sure that no emergency situations were imminent and hopefully, everyone could have a peaceful night.

"Base to Thunderbird Five," he said as he opened up the video link between the two of them.

"Thunderbird Five here," his blonde son answered. "Hi Dad, ready to go to bed now?"

"Just about to go, son," Jeff replied. "Anything I need to know about before I do?"

"Well I guess things are pretty quiet on planet Earth for now," John told him. "Just that storm I warned you about earlier which might disturb you when it breaks. I've been monitoring it and it does not look too serious and should pass over after an hour or so."

"Ok, John, goodnight," Jeff said.

"Goodnight, Dad, Thunderbird Five out." John replied as the video link was cut. John was about to grab something to eat and then go to bed himself. He knew his father's routine so he usually waited for that final call before doing so.

Jeff had been in bed and asleep for about two hours, when he heard the noise outside that he had been anticipating. He awoke to find that the storm was breaking overhead and the sound of thunder filled the air.

He lay awake listening to nature's fury as the storm gathered more intensity. Unable to get back to sleep now, memories flooded his brain.

Thunder: He had grown up with it as a way of life on the farm in Kansas, like generations before him. Jeff Tracy thought about those days and how, when a small boy, he used to be afraid at first of the noise of the storm outside.

_His mother would comfort him as best could until the storm had passed. His father would tell him not to be so scared as it was only clouds bumping together to make rain, and rain is what helped to make the wheat grow tall and green. Then it would turn gold as the summer sun shone down on it until it was ready for harvesting. Without the rain the crops would fail and they would find it difficult to live on very little money. They would have to wait until the next crop of wheat was planted and harvested the following year._

"_You should be grateful for that thunder, boy," his father would say to him. "It is part of your life and mine and it will be part of your son's life too when you grow up and have a family of your own one day."_

Another crash filled the air and Jeff continued on with his memories. As he had grown older he lost the fear of thunder, but was never able to sleep through it like some.

_He did not stick around too long on that farm listening to the yearly cycle of thunderstorms in Kansas. As soon as he came of age, he left home and followed his dream by joining the USAF to become a pilot. This move had upset his father, because he didn't follow in his family's footsteps by working on the farm he would inherit one day._

_Now the sound of thunder this time was not from storms raging overhead, but from the noise of jets as they roared around the air base, as they went on various missions. The sound held no fear now for the competent young pilot Jefferson Tracy, as he now flew high above the clouds. Clouds just like those that had dared to scare him when he was so small._

More thunder, and lightning too from the storm outside now raging over the island. The rain began to beat against the windows as the clouds passed overhead and began to dump some of their cargo on his home below. More memories flowed through Jeff Tracy's brain as he listened to the sound.

_Time had passed since he joined he air force and he had quickly risen in the ranks to Major Jefferson Tracy. "You're wanted in the Commander's office sir," Sergeant Bill Norris said to him after he returned from a mission one day._

_Major Tracy stood in front of his commanding officer's desk. General Whiteman surveyed the competent young officer in front of him. "Well now, Major, it seems your flying skills have not gone unnoticed and NASA has taken an interest in you and has selected you to be put forward for training with them. They want men like you to be part of the new moon landing programme. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, Major, I don't expect an answer from you about this right away I'll give you time to think about it. Report back to me and let me know of your decision."_

_Well the decision had been made. A different sound now filled the ears of Jefferson Tracy, astronaut. The thunderous sound of the mighty rocket blasting off from earth to take him to the moon was heard._

_The training for this achievement had taken about six years out of his life. What years they were though. He had met his dearest Lucille and married her within three months after overcoming resistance from both her parents and his to wait a while longer. To complete their happiness two little boys had been born to them._

_As the mighty rockets thundered farther away from them, he thought of his darling wife and two young sons watching the launch at the V.I.P. suite at NASA'S base in Florida. Lucy looked up with both pride and fear for her husband, as the rocket continued skywards. Their eldest son was by her side and tried to understand the scene in front of him. 'Daddy was in there and was going to the moon', he had been told. While his younger brother in their mother's arms, just watched in awe, waving his little hand as he had been told to do but not really understanding the momentous occasion._

_Jeff returned from that successful mission to the moon to thunderous applause. Crowds were everywhere; newspaper and television reporters were flashing their cameras and requesting interviews. All he wanted to do was see his wife and family again after the debriefing with NASA had taken place. He wanted to put them first in his priorities now that his goal had been reached. That once in a lifetime honour to go to the moon and serve his country was over. He had another dream too, only a vague impossible dream at this stage in his life, but one he hoped one day to fulfil._

Jeff smiled to himself as he thought about the years that followed, those wonderful, happy days with his wife at his side and their children growing up fast.

_The only thunder he heard now was the regular sort, out of the sky, loud and plenty of rain and lightning with it. At least there was that day when he and Lucy went to the local park for a picnic with the boys. The day was warm and sunny when they left home and they enjoyed watching Scott and John playing on the rides in the park. Their new son was only a month old and was fast asleep in his baby carriage. They had enjoyed their picnic and Lucy looked on fondly as her husband and sons enjoyed a ball game afterwards. Then the weather changed and the tell-tale signs of a brewing storm filled the air. Luckily for baby Virgil, his mother had been able to feed and change him before he was hastily put back into his carriage. Then the family made a rapid exit for home getting to within two blocks before the storm broke. Jeff quickly swooped up Scott and John into his arms, then he and Lucy ran with the carriage the rest of the way. Arriving home just before the heaviest of the rain fell._

_So it was that he built up a happy family life with his adored wife. Another son was added to their family and he now had built a very successful engineering business. The future seemed full of promise but that impossible dream still nagged him. He had long since left the wheat fields of Kansas behind except to visit his parents occasionally. They enjoyed seeing their grandsons and it gave the boys a chance to play in the open spaces, far away from the home in Boston where the family now lived so Jeff could be near his business empire._

_Sadly that happy world of his came crashing down around him, when a few months later his beloved wife died following the birth of their fifth son. He was inconsolable. However, with the help of his mother and the knowledge that five little boys depended on him, he found the strength to carry on. Devoting more time to his business and his children, he watched the profits soar, and at the back of his mind that dream still haunted him._

Another crash from the heaven's above resounded across the roof of the luxurious villa, a brilliant flash of lightning lit up the room and Jeff Tracy was wide awake now as his more memories returned to haunt him.

_Thunder returned to his life after he moved back to Kansas to be nearer his mother so she could help him with his young family. He realised he could not raise them alone and run his business and he needed the money to feed and clothe them all. He was lucky that modern technology enabled him to work from home the better part of the time. He now only needed to visit his business headquarters in person about once a month, and business trips abroad occasionally. His father had died after Virgil was born and he had no desire to be a wheat farmer now. The best solution had been to rent the farmland to tenants and let his mother stay in her beloved farm house where all her precious memories were. _

_Back in Kansas, he had to face the prospects of regular thunderstorms both day and night during the summer and disturbed sleep yet again. He was not fearful of them now as he looked out of the window at the storm that was about to break across the Kansas late night sky. He knew exactly what would happen next and he braced himself for it. He had come to dread night time thunderstorms_ again _for a very different reason. As soon as the first sounds of thunder filled the air, he knew what he would have to do._

_Out of all of his children, one had inherited his childhood fear of thunderstorms and that one would be waking up now and crying for him. It was not the baby, he always slept through them and so did the other three._

_With a sigh, he went into the room where his_ _frightened child lay, gripping the bedclothes in fright. His sleeping brother was totally unaware of the drama going on around him._

_Jeff bent down and lifted the little boy into his arms and carried him into his own room. "Make it stop, Daddy," he pleaded, as each new thunderclap made his little body go rigid with fear as he clung tightly to his father._

_He held his son tightly to him and thought back to what he had been told when he was about the same age. "Don't be scared, Gordon, it is only the clouds bumping together to make rain, and the rain helps the wheat grow tall and green and then the farmers sell it when it is made gold by the sun and it makes bread for you to eat and cereal for your breakfast."_

_The light brown eyes of his fourth son gazed up at him as he digested that fact._

"_So you should be grateful for that thunder, son," he went on to say to him. "It is part of your life and mine and when you grow up you will have heard the sound of thunder many times and in many places and you will know that it is nothing much to be scared of." _

_A few minutes later Jeff's mother came into the room with a cup of warm milk to help soothe her grandson's fears. She had known too that he would be awake and needed something to help him sleep again. She made Jeff a mug as well, just as she had done so when he was a boy. The night time storm was abating now and after Gordon finished drinking his milk the little boy drifted off to sleep again feeling safe and secure in his father's arms._

"_That's another storm over with, Mother," Jeff whispered quietly to her. "I'll get him back into his bed now. He probably will be none the worse for it and back to his usual self tomorrow."_

"_Alright son," his mother replied. "Goodnight."_

_Jeff carried his now sleeping son back into his own room and tucked him back into bed. Relieved that the night's ordeal was over, he gently kissed his son on the forehead. Before leaving the room he checked on the sleeping form of his other child and tucked his blankets back in again for him, too._

_He left them both sleeping peacefully as he made his way back into his own room and bed. He looked at the photograph by his bed of Lucy and silently thanked her for those five precious gifts she had given him. He laid awake for a few minutes as that impossible dream haunted him yet again. Would it become a reality one day? _

Wide awake on his island home he knew that it had. Through hard work with his business ventures, and the help of a brilliant young scientist, he had achieved his life's ambition. He also had those five young sons to thank who helped him run the International Rescue organisation he had formed.

Jeff decided to get up and go to the kitchen to get a glass of warm milk. The storm was still to be heard outside but losing its strength as it moved away from the island.

He was not entirely surprised by what he found when he entered the kitchen. Seated at the table was his red-haired son who was already drinking a mug of warm milk. Also there was his mother, preparing to make him one, too.

"Hi Dad," Gordon said with a smile. "Guess those clouds are still bumping into each other. I wish they would do it more quietly though."

Jeff squeezed his son's shoulder affectionately as he passed behind him to sit down at the table. Gordon had also grown out of the fear of thunder storms as he grew older, but like his father, was never able to sleep through them. After taking the mug of warm milk from his mother Jeff thought of his father's words spoken so long ago.

"_You should be grateful for that thunder, boy. It is part of your life and mine and it will be a part of your son's life, too, when you grow up and have a family of your own one day."_

He thought about the names of those machines that had been built to make his dream come true. He smiled at his son sitting opposite him and thought to himself, "You were right Dad, so right."

The end


End file.
